


Once In A Lifetime

by CiaraSky



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Arguments, Crying, F/M, Fights, Friendship, High School, Hurt, M/M, Same Age, Teenager, Time Travel, Witch - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-01-26
Packaged: 2018-01-10 04:07:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1154694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CiaraSky/pseuds/CiaraSky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles wakes up with a ringing in his ears.<br/>What happened?<br/>“Hey, time to get up kiddo, get your butt to school,” his dad says as he opens the door, a mug in his hand and already in his Sheriff uniform.<br/>Stiles bobs up and looks around his room with a confused look.<br/>He can’t tell if something was different. It doesn’t look like it. He has the urge to turn his laptop on and search for the words the witch had said, but maybe he should just go to school. Maybe Scott can tell him what happened.<br/>Except there is no Scott at school. However, somebody is there. </p><p>Or where the pack messes with a witch and Stiles gets thrown into some weird alternate universe where he finds him and a teenage Derek Hale.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once In A Lifetime

**Author's Note:**

> I'm dedicating this work to the lovely lovely Verity who I can share all my Teen Wolf thoughts with. Thank you, I love you.  
> Also a huge thank you to Miriam and her awesome video on which this work is based. (See end of notes for the video link.)

“I _knew_ this wouldn’t end well,” Stiles whispers to Scott as they hide behind as tree while the witch continues to murmur spells in languages they couldn’t understand. He looks over to Derek, who hides behind another tree and who shakes his head slightly, mouthing “Wait.” Stiles clutches his baseball bat, not really sure why he brought it, because, let’s face it, he couldn’t accomplish anything with it because the frigging witch had a wand with which she could kill him from a 100 yards distance.

They wait a few more moments.

“Come out and play,” the witch purred and suddenly, some kind of a supernatural draw starts tugging at his feet and Stiles stares at them in utter disbelief and turns to grab Scott by his arms.

“Scott?” Stiles says, his voice shaking horribly, while he continues to stare at his feet which seem to live their own life.

Scott looks at Stiles feet too, his eyes wide in horror, as he reaches out to keep Stiles where he is. Stiles turns his head at Derek who doesn’t dare to step out from behind the tree, but the older man’s eyes show that he fears for Stiles.

“Do something!” Stiles cries while his fingers dig deeper into the fabric of his best friend’s sweater, but the pull becomes stronger and stronger.

Eventually, the drag pulled him so far from behind the tree that he can look into the witches face. She grins a very evil grin and her eyes glow like fire.

“Good,” she sighs and aims her wand at him.

Stiles furls his eyebrows in mortal agony and looks over at Scott, then at Derek. His expression breaks Stiles’ heart. They are powerless.

“Retro in tempore,” she cries and silver sparks erupt from her wand and hit Stiles right in the chest. It’s like his skin is on fire, like he disbands.

Wait, he does. The fingers with which he held on to Scott are gone. He swirls into some white space, Scott and Derek and the witch get out of focus, turn white, white, _white_...

 

Stiles wakes up with a ringing in his ears.

What happened?

“Hey, time to get up kiddo, get your butt to school,” his dad says as he opens the door, a mug in his hand and already in his Sheriff uniform.

Stiles bobs up and looks around his room with a confused look.

He can’t tell if something was different. It doesn’t look like it. He has the urge to turn his laptop on and search for the words the witch had said, but maybe he should just go to school. Maybe Scott can tell him what happened.

Except there is no Scott at school. However, _somebody_ is there.

Derek.

Except that Derek is seventeen but already all brawny, muscles clearly visible through his white tank top and oh my, he wears a shirt, all unbuttoned, the dark blue perfectly fitting his skin. He smiles and all the girls in the hallway turn their heads. Damn, that boy is fine.

 _Wait._ This is Derek Hale, grumpy, frowning, incommunicative Derek Hale, except that this Derek Hale wasn’t grumpy or frowning. He looked happy, relaxed, just like the normal average teenage boy. And he definitely isn’t incommunicative. A few boys stand beside him and Derek probably just told a joke because all of them are laughing.

Suddenly, Derek looks over at Stiles. They lock eyes for a moment but when Stiles realizes what he’s doing, he hastily turns around and heads for his next class even though the break just began.

Phew, that was a close call. Stiles lets himself slump at the wall next to the classroom door, his heart still beating heavily. He draws a deep breath and slowly breathes out. Totally a close call.

The hallways are quiet, but the blood rushed in Stiles’ ears while he tries to catch a clear thought.

So, obviously Derek was still at high school, seventeen, popular and nothing like the Derek he knows. And obviously, _he_ is still at high school too…

What if this was a dream? What if the witch laid some kind of eternal sleep on him? That could explain everything.

Stiles looks around, but there are no posters on the walls in this hallway, so he turns around and opens the door to the classroom. The sunlight that drizzles through the windows blinds him for some moments. When his eyes accustomed to the light, Stiles looks around. There are posters in here and he immediately knows that this isn’t a dream. Everything was right, the letters were in order.

But the blood begins to rush in his ears again. So if this isn’t a dream, what is it then?

Theory A: This is another universe.  
Theory B: He got transported into the past.

Well, none of this makes any sense. But then again, werewolves and witches and kitsunes exist, so why shouldn’t other universes and travels into the past?

The bell cuts off Stiles’ train of thoughts. He files into the seat he’d normally have occupied and waits for the other pupils to enter the classroom. He doodles in his notepad when suddenly somebody stops in front of him. Stiles looks up, his breath held in.

“I usually sit there,” a girl with curly brown hair says and points at Stiles desk.

“Oh,” Stiles says, eyebrows raised. “Uhm, sorry, I… I just…” he scrambles out of seat and hastily fetches his notepad and bag. “It’s all yours, sorry.”

The girl gives him a bored look and sits down.

“Stiles?”

He skews and looks around the room to find out who’d called him. A guy with dark hair waves at him and points at the desk in front of him which is still empty. Quickly, Stiles sits down.

“Dude, something wrong? We haven’t spoken all morning,” the guy complains and Stiles turns around in his chair to look at him. Somehow, he resembles Scott.

 “Sorry, I, uhm, I’m a bit in a mess today, to be serious.” Stiles turns to the front again and almost chokes on his own salvia. Derek just came in at the door. Promptly, Stiles looks down at his notepad, squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his teeth. It is definitely no help that Derek goes past him and slightly brushes his shoulder and smells really good.

It takes him a few moments before he opens his eyes again. Even though the mysterious boy behind him addresses him several times during class, Stiles does not dare to look around because he knows that Derek sits somewhere in the back of the class and if he looks around, there is a 99 percent chance that Derek would catch his eye and Stiles definitely wants to avoid that.

Finally the bell rings again and the lessons is over. The rest of the day passes without further incidents and Stiles is really glad when he finally gets home. The first thing he does is to search for the spell the witch used. Something like… retro. And… in tempore.

“Retro in tempore,” Stiles whispers. He types it into Google translator and then he stares at the screen, not able to comprehend what he just read. “Back in time? The hell…?”

So it’s official. He’s back in time. Obviously before Kate Argent burned down Derek’s house and murdered his whole family. This is really disturbing. Just then he realizes that he didn’t know which year it is. So he risks a look at the bottom right corner of his laptop screen. It’s 2005. Oh my.

Stiles then checks his Facebook to find who the mysterious guy he sat in front of in class today is. He’s got two messages and one of them is from him; his name is Josh. Wait, all of this doesn’t make sense. If he’s back in time, why does he have friends? He should be ten years old, squabbling with Scott about which game they’re going to play next. Maybe this is some kind of another universe but _in the past_? Who knows? Especially because there’s no one he could ask. This is indeed confusing.

So there is only one option: To see what lies ahead.

 

The next day Stiles is certain that he does _not_ want to know what lies ahead. It had been a horrible day so far. Derek crossed his path several times this day and even though Stiles tried to not look at him, they locked eyes a few times, but this wasn’t even the worst. It is when after lunch, Laura Hale pins him to a wall with her hand on his chest.

“Stay away.”

Stiles feels something weird on his chest and he looks down to see that Laura clawed out.

“Why are you bringing out the claw?”

“To clarify the matter,” she says deadpan.

“Why should I be afraid of you?” Stiles asks and shrugs his shoulders like he doesn’t care.

“Oh, you should be,” Laura growls before she takes her hand off his chest. “I smelled your scent when you looked at him and I didn’t liked it. I don’t like _you_. Anyway, how come you’re interested in Derek all of a sudden? Oh no, wait, I don’t want to know. Just remember my words: Stay. Away.” Then she struts away and Stiles watches her teetering hair before she turns the corner. That was a close call. Again.

 

When Stiles is home in the evening, he thinks about how his actions in the past… the here and now… will influence the future… his here and now. He can’t quite conceive this whole concept of past and future. But from movies he watched and comics he read he comes to the conclusion that it’d be best to change as little as possible, even though he wasn’t entirely sure this was the _real_ past and not another universe’s past. He falls asleep with the “Back to the Future” credits playing.

 

It is no use. He can’t pretend to not see Derek. It is unnatural how often they cross each other’s paths these days, especially because the lacrosse training takes place three times the week and although Stiles isn’t in first line, he has to attend the training nevertheless. And it’s hard to not stare at Derek in the lacrosse outfit. Or afterwards in the locker rooms when he showers. Or when he then tells jokes, his hair still wet and just a towel slung around his hips. It just isn’t fair.

Sometime the next days, he sits in front of Josh in their history class.

“Dude, you can’t tell me you don’t fancy him,” he states. It isn’t a question.

“What are you talking about?” Stiles whispers and tries to sound like he means it.

“You know exactly _who_ I’m talking ‘bout, Stiles,” Josh says and leans forwards. “Derek Hale.”

Stiles swallows and is almost sure everyone in the room can hear it. Most of all Derek, since he’s a werewolf. Oh shit, his heartbeat gets out of control again and he surely smells like _lies_ so probably he just shouldn’t answer. He hisses “Shut up” at Josh and stares at the blackboard for the rest of the lesson. When the bell rings, he speedily picks up his things and escapes the overwhelming torrent of Derek-concerning questions from Josh.

Stiles grabs his lunch and leaves the cafeteria, he doesn’t want Josh to find him. He finds some abandoned hallway and sits down. He’s halfway through his sandwich when a figure appears at one end of the hallway. Stiles is more than aware that his heart starts to beat faster only at the thought that it may be Derek.

“Mr. Stilinski, no stay in the hallways during lunchtime,” Mr. Harris says and walks towards him with that scary expression on his face. Stiles doesn’t hesitate for a second, simply picks up his bag and half goes half runs down the hallway without looking back at his chemistry teacher. “No running in the hallways, Mr. Stilinski,” Mr. Harris calls after him but he honestly doesn’t care. But he probably shouldn’t have run because when he turns a corner, he comes face to face with Derek. Stiles awkwardly comes to a halt, eyes wide open and mouth open in surprise.

The corners of Derek’s mouth twitch.

“Stiles, right?” he asks and a smile stretches across his face.

Stiles clenches his teeth, eyes still wide open in surprise before he turns around and goes off into the opposite direction, away from Derek, away from his ridiculous pretty smile.

He notices he held his breath when he finally steps outside. His sandwich lays forgotten on the hallway floor in front of Derek.

 

The weekend is a welcome break to Stiles. He tries not to think about Derek, to distract himself with homework and movie marathons and eating as often as possible with his dad, but when he finally, reluctantly goes to bed around 1 a.m. on Monday night he can’t help to think about Derek. Stiles wonders how he could have become such a broody and sassy Sourwolf. No, that’s not right. He’s fascinated by how Derek really was. Is. This may be the past, but now it’s his present, at least for some time. Stiles figures that perhaps it doesn’t hurt to find out a bit more about _this_ Derek Hale.

 

The first thing Stiles does on Monday morning at school is to find Derek and apologize for his behavior. He finds him with a group of friends in a hallway.

“Uhm, Derek?”

Derek turns around and looks at him. Stiles half fears that he will laugh at him, but instead a spark of recognition light up his eyes.

“Hey Stiles.” The boys behind Derek snicker on the quiet, but Derek looks over his shoulder and gives them what Stiles assumes must be one of his deadly glares. “What’s up?”

“I, uhm…” The blood begins to flush his cheeks. Pathetic. “I wanted to, uhm, apologize for Friday. About almost knocking you over and probably dropping my sandwich on your shoes, but I… I was on the run from Mr. Harris.” The snickers get louder. Derek rolls his eyes.

“Don’t mind them. But yeah, your sandwich didn’t land on my shoes, but thanks for the concern,” he says and gives Stiles a warm smile. “And I’d have been on the run too if Harris caught me in the hallways.” Stiles tugs at the strap of his backpack on his shoulder and can’t help grinning. He’s about to turn around and get into class when Derek says “’d you like to sit with me at lunch… so you don’t have to get away from Harris again?”

Stiles stops dead in his motions and turns around again. His face goes from realization to curiosity to disbelief.

“You sure about this?” he asks doubting and pulls his eyebrows up. “I’m pretty much a pain in the ass most of the time.”

“You’re pretty funny from what I can tell, so I think I can cope with the pain-in-the-ass-thing. See you at lunch.”

Stiles stares at Derek as he walks away, at his dark hair and his broad shoulders and his rear. That’s when Josh grabs his shoulders and shakes him slightly.

“Earth at Stiles: Wake up, we’ve got economics up next, so if you finished checking out Derek Hale’s butt we should get going.”

Stiles looks around and gives his here-and-now-apparently-best-friend a “serious?”-look.

“Man, just ask him already if he wants to do the do with you! I know you think he’s hot, you told me _ages_ ago so please just get your move on and ask him.”

This time, Stiles growls in disbelieve at the utter lack of decency of Josh, but Josh just shakes his head and says “You can’t tell me otherwise, buddy” and vanished into the classroom just in time.

 

Do you know the feeling that when you dread something the time seems to fly by at double speed? That’s how it feels for Stiles.

During economics, Josh hisses what he thinks are funny comments at Stiles, but they make it ten times worse.

“Look, dude, he’s not that hard of a catch, the only one slightly interested in him is Paige, that strange girl who always practices in the music room and sits alone at lunch.”

“Nobody seems to admit they fancy him if he doesn’t do the same in return so that means he told her he likes her,” Stiles says and buries his head in his folded arms on the desk.

“Maybe he just tells the pretty ones?” Josh suggests and Stiles turns around at him with a really offended help.

“Thanks for psyching me up,” he growls and buries his hand in his arms again. Great. Now Stiles feels like he butts into the blossoming relationship of Paige and Derek plus he feels ugly and not fancy-worthy for Derek. Really great.

So when it’s time for lunch, Stiles decides to search for a quiet corner instead of having lunch with Derek. Which wasn’t a good idea after all because again, Mr. Harris finds him and swears that if he finds Stiles during lunchtime in the hallways again, he’ll get him a detention that’ll be worse than everything he experienced. Needless to say Stiles does not eat lunch in the hallways again. Why all the close calls all the time?

Somehow Stiles survives the rest of the school day without meeting Derek because he doesn’t know how he would explain why he didn’t show up at lunch.

“Hey, Derek, a witch which we’ll fight in 2011 sent me back and now I am here and try not to mess everything up”?

Or

“Hey Derek, well, I’m from the future, normally I’d be ten years old, but I think you’re really great, and hot, so maybe let’s make out?”

Nope. That’s not going to happen.

 

The next morning, it’s Derek who confronts him.

“Hey, why didn’t you show up yesterday?” he asks, not angry but concerned.

“Uhm, yeah, sorry ‘bout that, I felt kinda sick.” Which isn’t a lie. It was like his stomach turned over and over and over which really made him feel sick.

“Oh,” Derek’s eyes widen. “Do you feel better?”

Phew, so he doesn’t smell like lies.

“I think so,” Stiles mumbles and stares at his feet for a moment because he can’t endure the intensity of Derek’s eyes.

“Well, maybe you can sit with me at lunch today if you don’t feel sick anymore?”

Stiles looks up in surprise. So Derek _fucking_ Hale asked him for a _second_ time if he, Stiles _awkward_ Stilinski wants to have lunch with him. One is an incident, two is a coincidence…

“Uhm… okay. I swear I’ll not be sick again.”

Derek’s face splits into a wide smile.

“Cool, so, see you at lunch!”

Stiles can’t help staring at Derek again as he walks away. At the end of the hallway, Derek turns around and waves at him before he turns the corner.

Stiles said to himself he wouldn’t change too much, but what can he do if Derek’s the one changing everything?

 

So when it’s time for lunch, Stiles heads for the cafeteria with his heart beating like it wants to pop out of his chest. He tries to calm himself down by slowly breathing in and out, but he knows that it won’t help. Even if it did calm his heartbeat down, it would spike up again the moment he sees Derek.

So he just pushes open the door to the cafeteria and looks around. Josh sits at a table in the far back and doesn’t notice him, but Stiles is okay with that. He doesn’t need another snarky comment about his attraction for Derek.

His eyes still search the room when somebody flimsily bumps his shoulder against his.

“Let’s get some lunch, okay?” Derek says and when Stiles looks over at him, he smirks. Derek jerks his head towards the line of students and tugs at the sleeve of Stiles’ button-down.

After they got their meals they head for the tables outside because the weather is really great, even though they struggle to find a table with two free seats because many of the other students seized this opportunity too. Eventually they sit down and dig in.

“Uhm, so why’d you like to have lunch with me?” Stiles asks before he shoves a forkful of noodles into his mouth.

Derek gives him a calculating look while he chews on his food.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Uhm, well…” Stiles hastily shoves another forkful of noodles in before he can say something like “When we first met you didn’t like he at all”.

“What?” Derek stares into Stiles eyes.

Stiles swallows with difficulty and grits his teeth with a miserable expression.

“It’s just... you’re totally out of my league.” Stiles squints his eyes. He didn’t just say that. He cautiously opens one eye and peers and Derek…

…who chuckles quietly.

The girls next to them at the table give them jeering looks.

He did not just say that.

Eventually, Derek stops chuckling.

“Well, I’ll keep _that_ in mind,” he says.

 

So that’s what happens the next days: Josh mocks him for having lunch with Derek, he still has lunch with Derek and spends the afternoon thinking about everything Derek said and analyzing if there were hidden meanings behind them.

And actually it’s real fun to have lunch with Derek. His humor is hilarious and mostly like Stiles’, and Stiles grasps that Derek is a normal teenager. He learns about Derek’s family – the normal stuff, obviously. There are his mom and his dad, his older sister Laura which Derek shows him during lunch one day when she sits near them - and glares at Stiles when Derek isn’t looking -, his younger sister Cora, his uncle Peter who is his mother’s brother, his father’s parents who visit them every other weekend, his aunt Catherin and uncle Alexander and their two sons Eric and Neill. He learns about Derek’s taste in music, that he’d like to see ‘30 Seconds to Mars’ live one day and that he’d been to a ‘Sum 41’ concert during the summer break with Laura. He learns that Derek prefers spaghetti over macaroni and doesn’t like spinach. He also learns that Derek likes to read, even if he doesn’t admit it to his other friends because they say reading is uncool. His favorite books are “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “Big Fish” and “Eragon” – “not particularly in this order,” Derek says and laughs.

During lunch on Friday, Derek tells Stiles that he has never been anywhere but in California.

“I’d totally like to visit Canada… or the East Coast.”

Stiles gives him a quizzical look.

“Canada? What’s so great about Canada?”

“I’d like to see the forests,” Derek admits.

“We’ve got forests too.”

“No we don’t,” Derek says and balances the rice on his fork. “Not such ones.”

“Are you some future Bear Grylls or something?” Stiles asks and points his fork at Derek.

“Wait, you know Bear Grylls?” Derek asks with a glazed look.

“Dude, that guy is _sick_ ,” Stiles says and digs his fork into his meal, their eyes still locked.

“We should go out.” The rice falls off Stiles’ fork. “What?” Derek says and grins.

Stiles catches himself and lays his fork down.

“You… asked me for a date?”

“Yeees,” Derek says and looks at him meaningful. “And if you ask again I’ll pretend I ever did.” He eats some of his meat.

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes, I wanna go out with you, Derek,” Stiles pours out and blushes and Derek can’t hide the widest smile Stiles ever saw on him.

“Do you want the cheesy option or the “You come to my house and we play video games all evening”-option?”

“I’ll be fine with the cheesy one,” Stiles says and begs that Derek doesn’t notice that he’d have liked the latter better but that he is afraid that Laura’d tear him apart if she sees him at their home.

“Tomorrow around eight?” Derek asks and tries hard to control his grinning. “I’ll pick you up.”

“Uhm,” Stiles gropes for words. “Eh, sure, yeah, I’ll be ready.” His mind is blank.

He’s having a date with Derek Hale.

“Shut your mouth, you’ll catch a fly, Stilinski,” a friend of Derek says as he passes the two of them with some of his friends.  
“Shut y _our_ mouth, Blake,” Derek snaps back.

But it’s hard to close your mouth when somebody as awesome as Derek Hale just asked you out for a date, sits in front of you, smiles at you and nudges your foot with his foot.

 

“You going anywhere?” his dad asks the next evening when Stiles storms into the kitchen.

Stiles hesitates for a moment, his hand on the handle of the fridge.

“Uhm. Yes, actually. I’m meeting with Derek.”

“Derek Hale?” is dad asks and looks up from the pile of papers on the kitchen table.

“Uhm… yes?”

“And when you say ‘meeting’, you mean ‘meeting’ or ‘having a date’?”

Stiles groans and lets go off the handle.

“Really, Dad?”

“I’d have asked the same question if it was Heather, Stiles.” His dad gives him a soothing look.

“Oh… yes, I’d say it’s a date.”

His dad smiles slightly, stands up and walks over to Stiles and squeezes his shoulder.

“We don’t need to talk, do we?” he asks with a stern look.

“Oh my god, no of course we don’t, Dad, stop embarrassing me,” Stiles says but chuckles the next moment.

“Have fun, okay?” his dad says and gives Stiles a tight hug.

“I will, Dad.” He brakes the embrace and opens the fridge to fetch a bottle of water.

“What are you guys doing, anyway?” John asks as he sits down at the table again.

“Errr, actually I don’t know,” the teen says and takes a sip from the bottle. “But probably the movies.”

“Ah,” his dad says and nods before he deepens into his papers again. Stiles examines him for a few seconds before there’s a knock on the door. He darts out of the kitchen and answers the door. It’s 7.43 p.m.

“Hey Stiles,” Derek says quietly and smiles. He wears a black shirt with a white “Sum 41”-print on, he probably bought it at the concert.

“Hi Derek,” Stiles manages to say while his fingers fidget around the doorknob.

“Hello Derek,” his dad suddenly says from next to him and expands a hand towards Derek which the teen then shakes.

“Good evening Mr. Stilinski.”

Wow, he’s got good manners.

“Where are you taking my son?” John asks interested.

“We’ll go to the movies. I figured “Flightplan” might be quite interesting.” He looks over at Stiles. “What do you think?”

Flightplan. It rings a bell somewhere far back in Stiles’ memories.

“That’s the one with Jodie Foster, right? Yeah, that’s… that could be a good movie.” Damn, he almost messed up. “Come one, let’s get going.”

“Stiles?” his dad says and waves Stiles nearer. “Have a good time, alright?” He presses 20 bucks into his hand.

“Wow, thanks Dad,” Stiles says and gives him a hug before he heads out with Derek. They get down the front porch and along the front yard path to Derek’s car. “Woah, you’ve got a Mustang?” Stiles sighs and slides his fingers over the smooth black surface.

“Uhm, well, I got it from my parents for my birthday,” Derek says rather sheepishly.

“Wow, your parents must be so cool!”

“ _Your_ dad is cool,” Derek says in return and opens the door on the driver’s side.

“He’s great,” he says and smiles before he opens the door on the passenger’s side and gets in.

 

It’s hard to sit next to Derek in the cinema. It’s dark and theirs arms brush one another occasionally when Stiles takes his cup to take sip from it. And sometimes, Stiles looks over at Derek only to see that his eyes are fixed on the cinema screen and his lips are slightly parted in fascination.

“One does not simply leave the passenger cabin without my consent,” Stiles whispers as he leans closer to Derek when Sean Bean comes on screen. It makes Derek chuckle quietly. Stiles wants to make more funny comments, but he can clearly see that Derek’s really interested in the movie – he hasn’t seen it several times already like Stiles.

 

“Man I knew that stewardess was totally evil, did you see the looks she gave Kyle in the beginning?” Derek complains as they squeeze through the cinema doors and the warm night air prickles on their skins.

“Yeah, I know, right? And the air marshal with this bored expression all the time, I bet he w _anted_ Pratt to find out it was him!” Stiles says heatedly as they reach Derek’s car.

“And it was so obvious he and the stewardess were in cahoots together, how she didn’t even search the avionics room properly!” Derek claims as he unlocks the car and they get in.

“But what I don’t understand: Why did he kill Pratt’s husband?” Stiles asks curious as he fastens his seat belt. He never understood that part of the movie.

Derek furls his eyebrows and looks over at Stiles as he starts the car.

“Uhm, I don’t know. Maybe we can Google it, but I’m not sure if we’ll find out anything.” Stiles looks at him unbelieving. “What?”

“It’s the internet, Derek.”

“And that means?”

“It’s omniscient.” He grins.

“Oh, sure, Mr. Know-It-All,” Derek grins back and turns the corner into Stiles street. He stop the car in front of Stiles house and the teen sees that the light’s still on in the kitchen. “Come on, I’ll show you to the door,” Derek says.

The teens get out of the car and make their wake up to the porch. Stiles turns his back to the door.

“Uhm, that was… good,” Stiles says after short consideration.

“Good?” Derek asks and perks an eyebrow at him. A shiver runs down Stiles’ spine.

“Awesome,” he corrects himself.

“Sound more like a description of this night, yeah,” Derek agrees and smirks. They are silent for some moments and it makes Stiles realize that his heart must sound like drums in Derek’s ears. “Uhm, so, good night. I’ll call you.”

“Yeah,” Stiles whispers blissfully.

Derek turns around, the hands in the pockets of his jeans, hops down the porch’s steps, gets down to his car and in. Stiles is almost sure he sees the radiance of Derek’s pearly white teeth in the darkness before he drives off.

Stiles might or might not jerk off to the thought of Derek later in the shower.

 

And Derek actually calls him. Not Sunday morning or Sunday evening but right the second when Stiles shut down his laptop and gets into bed.

“Stop it!” somebody says in the background.

“Uhm, hello?” Stiles asks.

“Urgh… hey Stiles,” Derek growls and Stiles can hear the slamming of a door in the background.

“Ev’rything ok?”

“Yeah, it was only Laura. I thought I escaped her but she found me and tried to stop me from calling you.” Well, that was straightforward.

“Why’d she stop you from calling me?” Stiles asks curiously even though he already knows the answer, but he wants to hear it from Derek himself.

“Hmph. She says she doesn’t like you.”

“But you called me anyway?”

“Yeah, I said I’d call, didn’t I?” Derek says and Stiles can almost see the small smile playing around the corners of Derek’s mouth. “Uhm, I didn’t wake you up or anything, did I?”

“Eh, no. No, you certainly did not. I just got into bed.” Stiles lays back and stares at the ceiling. “Is your sister always so bossy?”

“Errr, yes. But I never saw her so bad. Most of the time she’s actually she’s quite nice nevertheless. And she’s my older sister. I can’t explain it. She always took care of me, you know what I mean?”

“I can imagine what you mean,” Stiles says restrained.

“But I can’t bear it that she doesn’t like you,” Derek continues and sighs. “She doesn’t even know you. How can she say something like that?”

“Well, she’s the only one that can tell you,” Stiles murmurs and turns around to look out of his window. The moon is shining brightly.

“Yeah you’re right, but I really don’t care. Not much. She doesn’t have to hang out with you, does she?”

“No, she doesn’t have to.” Stiles closes his eyes. “But you won’t stop hanging out with me just because she says she doesn’t like me, right?”

“I wouldn’t stop hanging out with you even if she _tries_ to stop me from hanging out with you.” Stiles heart skips a beat. “So, I don’t wanna bar you from going to sleep, so, see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, see you tomorrow, Derek.”

“Good night, Stiles.”

“Good night.”

 

Usually, Stiles isn’t a big fan of Mondays – who is, really? – but when it involves seeing Derek, it becomes more bearable. He actually waits for him at the parking lot.

“You don’t risk physical abuse from Laura by this, do you?”

It makes Derek laugh out loud.

“I don’t think so, no. Come on, let’s get inside, the bell’s about to ring.”

Stiles first lesson is economics whereas Derek’s is geography. They part at the door to Stiles’ classroom.

“See you at lunch?” Derek asks and leans against the wall with one shoulder.

“Yeah.” Is there anything other to say?

“Stilinski, get into class,” the Coach says and Stiles turns around to find the Coach staring at him.

“Uhm, yeah, I should probably go,” Derek says and waves Stiles goodbye.

“No problem, Coach,” Stiles replies and get to his seat.

 

And Derek waits for him again after his third period. And again he leans against the brick wall and casually licks his lips and cocks his eyebrows at Stiles as he escapes the classroom hastily for lunch.

“That bad?” he smirks.

“Don’t even ask,” Stiles growls and tugs at Derek’s t-shirt to get him going.

“Wow, you’re in a tearing hurry,” the green-eyed boy says as he gets dragged along.

“Yes, because I’m ravenously hungry.”

“Well, you’re not the only one,” Derek states and grins.

They are almost at the cafeteria when a brown-haired girl blocks their way.

“Explain,” she says directed at Derek. The boys stop dead in their motions and both stare at the girl.

“Errr… what?” Derek asks blankly.

“Why you had a date with a _guy_ ,” she says and gives Stiles a taut look.

“We haven’t had a _date_ ,” Derek snarls at her with gritted teeth. Stiles surveys Derek from the side, crestfallen. “He’s just a friend, see?”

“Yeah, totally. Laura told me differently,” Paige snaps.

“What did she do?” Stiles asks dourly.

“What do you even care?” Paige says glowering.

“Well, it’s my…”  
“Stiles, shush!” Derek interrupts. “Why are you so affronted, Paige?” he tries to ask more calmly, but his nostrils are still flared in impatience. Paige rolls her eyes.

“Must be the fact that I thought that maybe _we’d_ do something this weekend.”

Derek breaks away from Paige’s gaze.

“This is ridiculous,” Stiles says and shakes his head.

“What?” Derek asks, obviously back in his right mind.

“I’ll have lunch now,” Stiles says with one last glance at Derek and heads for the cafeteria.

“What? Wait! Stiles, wait!” Derek calls after him but it is no use. Paige rolls her eyes again.

When Derek sits down in front of him with a worried expression and tries to talk to him, Stiles doesn’t answer, just glares.

He had been _so sure_ that there was something between him and Derek besides the amicable feelings. And now he is sure he imagined everything. Because in retrospect, their friendship is like his friendship with Scott. He even asked Scott to make out with him, more than once. He hadn’t asked Derek such questions yet, but their friendship is still fresh and nobody asks such things after three weeks of knowing each other. But then again, ‘friends’ don’t go on dates. But why does he feel so betrayed and hurt then?

 

But that feeling doesn’t go away, not during lacrosse practice when Derek tries to win him over with a joke (it’s still to fresh) and not during the afternoon at home when he tries to distract himself with vine-videos. Eventually Stiles tells himself that it’s probably better thing way. He isn’t supposed to mess with the past in the first place anyway, is he? But it’s so hard because it’s so easy.

Even his dad notices that something’s wrong and asks Stiles during dinner.

“Is it about Derek?”

Stiles looks at him bug-eyed and bits his lip.

“Yeah,” he admits and picks at his food. His dad looks at him worried.

“Is it serious?”

Stiles raises his eyes.

“I don’t know.” He pokes around his peas. “There’s this girl, Paige. She fancies him. I think he has a thing for her too.”  
“But he also went on a date with you?” John asks.

“Yeah, ‘bout that… he told her it wasn’t a date.”

John furls his eyebrows in incomprehension.

“He told her _it wasn’t a date_? Kiddo, you should make clear that it was a date for you.”

“I don’t think he actually meant what he said,” Stiles says dolefully.

“But you sound like you think he did.”

Stiles drops his fork into his food.

“I don’t know, Dad!” he sighs heavily. “I’m not hungry, sorry,” he says and shoves his chair back and leaves the kitchen. Upstairs, he flings himself onto his bed and buries his face in the pillow. “Pathetic.”

 

A half hour later there’s a knock in his door.

“Come in,” Stiles mumbles into his pillow. He hears the turning of the doorknob and the stifled footsteps on the carpet.

“Hey.”

That is definitely not the voice of his father. He knows exactly whose voice that it.

“Derek,” he croaks and looks around at him. Derek sheepishly stands in the middle of his rooms and his hands are buried in his trouser pockets. Stiles bobs himself up.

“Uh… why… why are you here?” he asks peering.

“I’m sorry,” Derek simply says and somehow, in some strange way, brings a smile to Stiles face. “I was a real shit head today.” And this makes Stiles laugh.

“Yes you were.”

“Man, I didn’t even know she could be so jealous, we’re not even dating,” Derek says and grins. “You’re my best mate, a girl won’t ruin that, right?”

Stiles intended to ask “ _We_ or _you_?” about the dating, but now he’s completely baffled.

“I… I’m your best mate?” he asks dreamily.

“Of course you are, Stiles.” Derek smiles at him and his knees get weak. “So, apology accepted?”

“Totally accepted,” Stiles says and fist bumps Derek. “But about Saturday… it _was_ a date, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, it was, but I had to calm her down. You know what girls are like, right?”

“Yeah,” Stiles agrees and thinks of Lydia and how sometimes, she was really really complicated. “Wanna play some Star Wars?”

“Sure, let’s go,” Derek says grinning and sits down on the bed next to Stiles.

 

And then, everything’s okay. They pull their jokes, have their lunch and occasionally play videogames in the evening at Stiles’. They learn together for tests and Derek helps Stiles practicing lacrosse. October passes and it gets colder and Stiles Jeep broke – something with the axle – and so, Derek picks him up until his car is back from the workshop. One day, Derek asks Stiles to accompany him after school. And when they arrive in front of the Hale House Stiles is overwhelmed because it’s a really fine house and it looks even better on the inside, really classy. Mr. and Ms. Hale try to welcome him, but Cora elbows her way through the gap between her parents and hugs Stiles because “Derek thinks about you all the time and he says you’re a really cool guy” which turns Derek’s cheeks deep red and makes his parents smile silently. Then, Stiles shakes Mr. and Ms. Hale’s hands and they introduce themselves as Pharell and Talia. Talia says she will call them when dinner is ready and so, Stiles and Derek go up the stairs and Derek shows him his room.

“Woah, you’re a fan of the Oakland Raiders?” Stiles asks stunned as he turns around himself several times.

“Uhm, yeah, haven’t I told you?”

“Obviously you haven’t,” Stiles says grinning and admires the plastered wall full of posters of the Oakland Raiders.

“I didn’t know you’re interested in football,” Derek says defensive.

“I’m not. My dad is. The Raiders are his fav team.”

“Wow, that’s cool!” Derek smiles widely. “I’m the only one in my family who’s into football, which really sucks, so maybe we could watch a game together with your dad or something one day!”

“Yeah, I guess we could do that.”

They do their homework after some further chatting and around 7 p.m., Talia calls them. She made lasagna and it’s the best lasagna Stiles ate in his whole life and he doesn’t hesitate to tell her so and it makes her smile in a really cute way which makes Stiles happy. He’s also happy that Laura is at a friend of hers and won’t return until 9 so she doesn’t have a chance of glaring at him. While dinner, ten year old Cora giggles near-continuous and gives Stiles meaningful looks until Derek kicks her shin under the table.

After dinner, they head back for Derek’s room where Stiles falls onto his bed immediately.

“Help! I’m bursting!” he cries and holds his tummy.

“Please don’t do it in here!” Derek says in a fake panicky voice and pulls Stiles off his bed by his ankles, which results in Stiles’ hitting his head on Derek’s bedframe.

“OUCH! Damn it, Derek, please be a bit gentler, will you?” Stiles cries and rubs the back of his head.

“I’m _always_ gentle,” he smirks and looks down at Stiles.

“And I totally _don’t_ believe you that,” Stiles replies, straightening up and sitting down back on the bed.

“You want me to prove it or what?” Derek asks with an inscrutable face. Stiles’ heartbeat increases slap-bang by the sheer look in Derek’s eyes that pin him down. Suddenly, Derek leaps forward and gently presses Stiles down into the mattress by his shoulder. Stiles feels Derek’s warm, moist breath on his lips and the pressure of Derek’s leg between his and he’s unable to tear his gaze from Derek’s eyes that seem to glow golden in the semidarkness. “Because I could _totally_ do that,” Derek whispers and his eyes flicker from Stiles eyes to his lips. He moves closer until their lips nearly meet and stays like this a few moments.

Then he pulls back.

“I told Paige to get lost. If she’d behave the way she did in the future, I’m totally not interested. I don’t need somebody who’s that jealous.”

Stiles’ heartbeat doesn’t slow down.

“So that means…”

“That means nobody will question our dates again,” Derek finishes the sentence.

‘Except Laura,’ Stiles thinks to himself.

 

Next day at lunch, something really strange happens.

Laura comes up to them.

“Hey Derek, how’s it going?” she asks with a wide smile and steals one of his fries.

“Ev’rything’s fine, why?” he answers with an equally wide smile. Stiles feels like he’s a ghost.

“No reason.” She steals some more fries and sits down next to Derek. “I wanted to apologize.” Stiles surveys her closely, his eyebrows knitted. Then she turns her head around to look at Stiles. “I said some pretty terrible things. I still don’t like you. But I can’t keep _you_ ,” she turns back to Derek and pinches his cheeks which earns her a growl from Derek, “from hanging out with him.” She stands up, steals another one of Derek’s fries and blows him a kiss as she leaves the cafeteria.

There was something seriously wrong about all of this.

When the boys bring their trays away, Stiles can’t no longer hold his thoughts back.

“I don’t like her too.”

Derek blinks at him.

“Why don’t you like her?”

“Maybe you should ask _her_ that question. I’ve done nothing wrong, have I?” They cross the hallway into the schoolyard. A cold wind blows and Stiles pulls his sweater closer around himself.

“What’s your problem with her?” Derek asks darkly.

“It’s like she’s trying to keep us apart,” Stiles blurs out and flinches.

“Why should she do that? She doesn’t even know how awesome you are!” Derek gives him a despondent look. Then Laura catches Stiles’ eye, her hair waving in the wind and she looks over at him and gives him something you could label as a deadly glare. Stiles doesn’t dare to point it out to Derek.

“She’s just… evil.”

“Evil?” Derek says offended. “She’s not _evil_ , Stiles, she’s like me, just as a girl and she’s super cool, but she’s definitely _not_ evil.” Derek looks like he can’t believe what Stiles said.

“Yeah,” Stiles says, perking his eyebrows and turns around, getting into class as the bell just rang. Derek runs after him until he catches up.

“How can I prove that she’s not evil?” he asks concerned.

“You can’t,” Stiles says tonelessly. He breathes in heavily. “I… I’m sorry. She’s your sister, you know her better than I do.” With his head hanging, he enters the classroom, but Derek grabs him by his wrist and holds him back.

“It’s awful that you two don’t get along, but we’re still studying tonight, right?”

Stiles face splits into discomfort.

“Yeah,” he finally says and it brings a smile to Derek’s face.

“You’re the best, Stiles,” Derek says and pulls him into the classroom with him.

 

Stiles picks a random question from the sheet of paper they made up to learn for the history test on Northern Europe.

“So, the Thirty Years War was when?” he asks.

“Uhm… 1618 until 1648.”

“Yep. And, uhm, in the Great Northern war, who fought against who?”

“Errr… Sweden against… Russia, Denmark-Norway and… eh… Saxony?”

“Almost. It’s Saxony-Poland,” Stiles corrects him.

“Ahhh, yes, I always forget Poland. Next question.”

“What’s the union called that lasted from 1397 to 1523?”

“Kalmar Union,” Derek spits out.

“Awesome. Now it’s my turn.” Stiles hands Derek the sheet paper and prepares himself for the first question.

“Alright. Uhm, so… who lead the Danish intervention that happened between 1625 and 1629?”

“Urgh, I hate the Thirty Years War,” Stiles cries and lets his head fall back against the wall. “Some Christian.”

“Come on, Stiles, think harder, I know you know it.”

Stiles clenches his teeth and furls his eyebrows, thinking hard.

“Ehhhhhhh, Christian IV?”

“Yes, awesome! And why did he intervene?”

“Oh god… uhm, wait. Because… because… something with protestant.”

“Warm.”

“Err… oh god Derek I don’t know, please tell me.”

“He feared that Denmark’s sovereignty as a Protestant nation was threatened.”

“I’ll fail this test, like, extra hard,” Stiles says miserably and facepalms. 

“No you won’t,” Derek disagrees. “We’ve still got a week to learn all this stuff, so don’t give up.”

“Alright,” Stiles says grudgingly. “Go on.” Derek grins.

“When did Germany invade Denmark and Norway in World War II?”

“Oh, I know that one! It was on April 9, 1940!”

“Well, there you go!” Derek grinned broadly.

“Uhm, Derek?” Stiles interrupts as his stomach growls loudly.

“Yes, I could do with dinner, too,” he answer the unsaid question.

“I’ll just go and shove two pizzas into the oven, ok?”

“Okay.”

While they wait for their pizzas, they practice some more and Stiles is really fascinated by how good Derek can remember everything.

“It’s like you’re a walking encyclopedia, that’s not fair,” Stiles says before he takes the first bite from a slice of his pizza that’s still steaming hot.

“I told you I read a lot,” Derek answers plainly.

“Even school books?”

“Sometimes,” Derek mumbles and takes a bite from his slice of pizza.

“You’re hilarious.”

They continue to eat their pizzas silently. When they finished, Stiles brings their plates downstairs and they carry on to learn and learn and learn and forget about the time because Derek prods Stiles to keep going and Stiles gets better and better, but when Stiles comes back from the bathroom and fetching a bag of chips for them after a short break, he finds Derek asleep on his bed with the history book on his chest, one hand on it, the other hanging down.

It hits Stiles. This is how it could have been. Derek, happy and unhurt, the worst that would have happened to him would have been bad marks in tests. Paige would have been alive and so would have been his family. Kate Argent would never have been able to approach Derek because Stiles would have warned him. Laura wouldn’t have been killed by Peter in his attempt to become an alpha. He could have been going to university, study and earn a lot of money in a cool job.

And that’s the point: It _could_ have been. There’s no prove that everything would turn out better if Stiles changes everything. What if everything turns out worse? Stiles can’t risk that.

Stiles nudges Derek’s shoulder softly to wake him up.

“Hey sleepywo… sleepyhead,” he whispers as Derek’s eyes flutter open.

“Oh, hey, sorry, it just came over me,” he mumbles and rubs his eyes as he straightens himself up.

“No problem,” Stiles says smiling. “But we should probably stop learning, shouldn’t we? I don’t want you to land in the ditch on the drive back home because you fall asleep again.”  
“Yeah, you’re prob’ly right,” Derek says and stands up. Derek packs his bag and their head downstairs where Stiles says goodbye to Derek at the door.

It could have been.

 

The next days until the weekend, this procedure repeats except the falling asleep of Derek. Their hands brush longer than necessary when Stiles hands Derek a book, a sheet of paper or a file and vice versa. Stiles is certain that Derek does this on purpose. The tension between them is almost tangible. The teens still crack their jokes, but it’s not like it’s been before. For one because of the almost-kiss, for a second because of Laura. And Stiles stills tells himself to not change anything, but he knows it’s probably too late. So many things changed already. Derek ditched Paige and if that wasn’t an essential change in the whole Derek-becomes-the-most-hurt-person-in-the-world story, then what was?

And when Derek calls on Sunday afternoon, Stiles thinks it may be because he wants to ask if he can come over and watch the game of the Oakland Raiders together with him and his dad. But things turned out differently.

“Why did you do that?” he snaps at Stiles first then when he answers the phone.

“Uhm, sorry. Do what?”

“Don’t act so innocent. You know what I’m talking about.”

“Obviously I don’t, Derek. Spit it out,” Stiles snaps back, getting more annoyed every minute. He hears Derek growl loudly and sees him almost wolf out before his inner eye.

“How can you dare to make out with who-cares-what-his-name-is?”

Stiles is speechless for several seconds.

“How can I…? Who…? Make out?! What?!?” This is unbelievable. This doesn’t happen right now.

“Say no more! I don’t wanna hear it. Laura told me everything. She was at the Jungle yesterday and saw you dancing with that _guy_ and then he started to kiss you and she said you just went with the flow! How _could_ you?” Derek spits out the last three words.

“You believe _her_? She even _told_ you she doesn’t like me and you still trust her nonetheless? This is unbelievable.”

“She’s my _fucking_ sister, Stiles, of course I trust her.”

“She’s a fucking _manipulative_ bitch and I TOLD YOU SO!”

“DON’T YOU DARE TO INSULT MY SISTER! FUCK OFF, STILES!”

“FUCK YOU TOO, DEREK!” Stiles shouts and throws his mobile with all his force onto his bed. “FUCK!”

 

Stiles isn’t a big fan of Mondays but some time ago, it became more bearable because it involved seeing Derek. Now it’s hell because of seeing Derek. And it is hell because every time Stiles passes Laura in the hallways, she smiles at him and he knows exactly that all of this her doing. That she’s responsible for the fact that Derek thinks Stiles isn’t interested in him even though Derek ought to have the ability to smell and hear that that was lie.

It’s even worse because this whole mess takes up the entire space in Stiles’ mind and blocks out the anyway frugal history facts Stiles managed to save there and so he fails the test, just like he predicted he would.

And during the breaks Derek and Stiles always run into each other just because it’s so natural for they spent every break together in the last few weeks. And when Laura’s around those scenes she smirks at Stiles but gives Derek a sad face as soon as she catches his eye, which makes the anger boil hot white inside Stiles. He would have likes to smash her skull with his baseball bat to wipe that smirk off her face, but on the one hand it’s unlikely that he’d even get near her and on the other hand he doesn’t want to hurt Derek after all and since Laura is his sister he’d hurt him by hurting her.

It seems futile.

The next two days pass in a haze. Stiles wakes up, gulps some spoons full of cereals for breakfast, drives to school, tries not to _accidently_ drive against Laura’s convertible on the parking lot, hides in the hallways, endures the lessons and finds excuses so he doesn’t need to attend lacrosse practice. At home, he tries to take off his mind with funny videos, porn and eating lots of fast food, but the only thing he can think about all day, every day, is Derek. How can he make Derek believe that he didn’t make out with some random guy in a club he never even went to? How can he make Derek believe it’s all Laura’s doing? How can he make Derek believe that all he wants is Derek to be happy?

 

It’s dark when Stiles gets home on Wednesday evening. He had a strong craving for curly fries so he had to get out and buy some.

He doesn’t notice Derek’s mustang at the roadside, so he shouts his head off when suddenly, Derek appears next to him when he gets out of his Jeep.

“Derek, what the heck are you doing here?” He can’t stop his heart from beating fast, not because he’s still scared, but because he’s relieved to find that Derek is here.

“I love you,” Derek blurs out and his eyes widen in shock.

Stiles is speechless. He examines Derek’s face, the blush that’s most likely not from the cold November air, his knitted brows and his slightly parted lips.

“You love me?” Stiles asks breathlessly and the blood rushes in his ears.

“I love you,” Derek repeats. “You don’t love me?”

Stiles flinches miserably.

He does so much, but he can’t admit it. Laura ruined too much with her actions and if Derek choose to believe her instead of him, how could this turn out all right? It would all turn out worse, wrong, woefully. And Derek doesn’t know anything and Stiles knows it all and that’s the problem: Derek doesn’t know what lies ahead. And Stiles can’t tell him and that’s the worst of all; that Derek will never know. So what if when he says yes and Kate still burns his house down, but everyone dies including Derek? Or he’s the only one that survives? And he can’t control himself afterwards and gets hunted down by hunters and slashed in half? Stiles can’t risk it, can’t risk any of it.

“I… I can’t love you.” Derek’s expression breaks Stiles heart. Pleading and pained. “I… you… I can’t tell you, everything’s so complicated. I’m sorry.”

Derek continues to look at him cheerlessly and nobody moves for a minute.

“We can’t see each other anymore,” Derek states tonelessly.

Stiles mind doesn’t grasp the meaning of the words.

It’s already too late when he screams “Derek” after him with tears in his eyes.

 

Everything hurts. He can’t sleep. He can’t eat. Every song he hears reminds him of Derek. Laura smirks at him wider than she ever did and the urge to bring his baseball bat to school get bigger. He is dropped from the team because he refuses to turn up to the practices. He fails tests and can’t concentrate during classes. He almost crashes twice on his way to school and back and so his dad takes the keys to his Jeep from him and insists to drive him to school personally.

Even curly fries don’t taste anymore.

The worst are the evenings. Two days after Derek’s confession Stiles notices that Derek parks in front of the house. This day. The next. The day after that. For the next two weeks.

Stiles doesn’t dare to show he notices. He’s sure Derek notices anyway. Stiles is sure he also notices his breakdowns. He can’t pretend he’s strong anymore. He breaks down onto his bed and let the tears take his sight away. He ignores the knocks on his door from his dad – who comes in anyway but leaves again shortly afterwards after he put down a plate with cookies and a mug with hot milk, just like when Stiles was still a kid.

Everyone who said ‘It will get better’ lied. It gets worse. Stiles realizes that he needs Derek in his life. It’s no understatement.

Then, in December, Josh drags him to a party of one of his friends and Stiles only agrees because his dad threatens to not let him eat curly fries ever again if he doesn’t leave the house for something different than school soon. But it is a bad idea. Derek turns up, they lock eyes and everything around them seems to vanish. Derek looks good in his leather jacket, but he looks so broken. Josh has to shake Stiles’ shoulders _hard_ to break the gaze. Then Stiles notices that his cheeks are wet from his tears. He cried in a room full of people and didn’t notice. Josh then drives him home and makes sure his dad keeps an eye on him for the rest of the night, saying that he’s “really afraid that he’ll do something to himself if he’s alone”.

Stiles doesn’t sleep that night.

His dad holds him close as he cries and cries and cries. It hits him that he didn’t saw a smile on Derek since they stopped talking. It hits him that it had been a month since they last talked. A month since Derek confessed his love for him.

Before the sun rises the next morning, his dad gets downstairs to make Stiles pancakes. Stiles crawls out of his bed and into the hallway to look out of the window and he finds what he searches for: Derek in his Mustang. But what he sees then burns his insides with guilty feelings: Derek cries. He still wears the leather jacket. Had Derek been awake the whole night just like he had been?

During the last week of school after the party, Derek and Stiles lock eyes frequently. Laura doesn’t smirk as much as she used to.

On Christmas Eve, Derek parks in front of Stiles’ house again. They lock eyes when Stiles peers though the hallway window.

This can’t go on. It’s exhausting and makes everything worse. But Stiles doesn’t know what to do. He can’t just go up to Derek, fist bump him, apologize and expect them to behave like they used to. It doesn’t work like that. But it _can’t_ go on like this.

Christmas passes like every year and so does New Year’s Eve. And Stiles still can’t think about anything but Derek.

But he makes a plan. He has to apologize. For calling Laura a bitch, for one. For being such a shit head, for another. For not saying that he loves Derek with every fiber of his body, for a third.

He tries to call Derek because he’s afraid to come face to face with him again, but he can’t bring himself to actually call, all his fingers always do is hovering over Derek’s number on the display.

He tries to send a text message, but the display stays clear, no matter how long he stares at it.

Eventually, his dad gives him the crucial prod.

“Just go up to him. I know he spends every afternoon and evening in front of our house in his car, it’s conspicuous. Tell him what you think. That’s the only way.”

On the last day of the Christmas break, Stiles’ gathers all his courage, but it needs his dad to open the door for him and shove him outside before he finally gets going.

His heart beast super-fast and the sound of the blood rushing in his ears makes him dizzy. He sweats severely and wipes his hands on his jeans. He puts one foot in front of the other as he approaches Derek’s car. The windows are fogged.

He reaches the car and stretches out his hand to open it. His breathing increases as he sits down.

The silence is absolute.

Stiles dares to look over at Derek.

Their eyes meet.

They stare at each other.

Nobody says a word.

It’s cold.

“I love you.”

“So you can love me now?”

“I want to.”

 

“Your heartbeat was so loud, it was the loudest heartbeat I ever heard,” Derek whispers as he entwines their fingers.

“I was really nervous.”

“I noticed. Why didn’t you told me earlier that you knew about all this werewolf stuff?”

“It was difficult. Still is.”

“But you will tell me, one day?”

“Yes,” Stiles simply says and looks Derek straight into the eyes.

Derek leans nearer.

“What about Laura?” Stiles whispers breathlessly.

“It’s funny to hear her complain about how the whole house smells like sexual teenage tension,” Derek whispers softly and leans still nearer. Stiles feels his heart beating faster and faster.

“Is it so bad?” he manages to ask.

“Yeah, plus she doesn’t like your smell,” Derek murmurs hoarsely and bridges the gap between them. His lips are hot on Stiles’, hot and wet and filled with longing. His fingers get lost in Derek’s hair and clasp Derek’s shirt when he bites his neck.

“She pr’bly hassu deal wi’it,” Stiles slurs as Derek lips a wet strip along his neck.

A tingling sensation starts in his chest. It’s warm and prickling and he begins to see stars.

Wait. It doesn’t feel right.  
Why is everything getting so white?

Wait. Oh no. Not now.

“Derek?”

But he doesn’t hear him.

“DEREK?!” he screams but everything turns white, white, _white_ …

 

He wakes up with a ringing in his ears.

“Oh my god, Stiles, is everything alright?” Scott asks with a worried voice.

Stiles feels the wet ground of the forest beneath himself. His hands clawed at the damp, rotten leaves and the soft moss and he feels the cool soil under his fingernails.

“Stiles?” another voice asks. Stiles cautiously turns his head and green eyes come into his field of view.

“Derek?” The older man kneels down and takes Stiles hand. “You okay?” There’s a curious expression on his face.

“I think so,” Stiles croaks and rests himself on one elbow. “Do you… remember anything?” he asks Derek.

“What happened?” Scott interrupts but they don’t pay attention to him.

“It’s like a déjà vu. I was seventeen and suddenly, you were there too and we were… we became friends. Laura didn’t like you. We had a massive fight. And then…”

Scott and Stiles both examine Derek with curious looks.

“Then I kissed you,” Derek says with a gazed look.

“And then I came back. How long have I been out?”

“Thirty minutes.”

“What? I’ve been away three months!” Stiles says disbelievingly.

“No, Stiles. It were thirty minutes.” Derek helps him standing up. Then they both look around at Scott. “Could we have a moment alone?”

“If need be…” Scott agrees and vanished into the woods.

Derek steps closer.

“I lied. It wasn’t like a déjà vu.” Stiles looks into those green, bright eyes. “It was more like a very vivid dream. Almost like a real memory.”

“But it didn’t really happen?” Stiles asks doubtfully.

“No,” Derek says and his face looks somehow pained. Stiles heart begins to beat faster. Again.

“But… you wish it happened? Or what is that look in your eyes trying to tell me?” Stiles whispers.

“Maybe,” Derek murmurs and takes another step closer. And like earlier, Stiles can feel Derek’s hot breath on his skin. It sends a chill up and down his spine. “I smell sexual teenage tension.”

Stiles grins.

“You know what to do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WSYl2073SH8


End file.
